SAN DIEGO – They paved paradise and put up a parking lot. Now begins the search for a better solution.

The 166-acre Qualcomm Stadium site, the asphalt bungle San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders has dubiously dubbed “the biggest parking lot west of the Mississippi,” is destined for redevelopment. Maybe even in this millennium.

What this means to the Chargers, however, may be only as much as what Mardi Gras means on the moon.

First of all, Alberta's West Edmonton Mall would dispute San Diego's claim to parking pre-eminence west of The Big Muddy. Second, discussions to expand San Diego State's campus to the intersection of Friars Road and Mission Village Drive may be more embryonic than preliminary and would appear to be predicated on the Chargers being somewhere else.

The kind of project that is being contemplated contains many moving parts and a stagnant state, with no fixed schedule and no specific accommodation for the stadium's most attractive tenant. Even under the most optimistic scenario, then, it is almost inconceivable that so ambitious an idea could be implemented while the Chargers continue to play on the property.

The Chargers' lease runs through 2020. And though the contract affords the franchise annual opportunities to depart, it obligates the city to meet certain requirements as long as the team stays, including a minimum of 15,000 on-site parking spaces. So unless Sanders is prepared to work up a No. 6 – see “Blazing Saddles” for a detailed description – he can expect to wait until Team Spanos vacates the premises voluntarily before attempting to install SDSU's new “front door.”

Because Sanders has yet to identify a stadium solution, his enthusiasm for the SDSU initiative might seem unsettling to Chargers' fans, already anxious about the future of their favorite team. Yet given the city's term limits, its torpor and its glacial timetable for Big Ideas, curiosity is probably more appropriate than concern.

“We don't know what this project might look like (yet),” said Darren Pudgil, Sanders' spokesman. “That's why we've initiated discussions. How dense or what specific uses are on that site have yet to be determined. We will certainly seek (the Chargers') input on whatever options surface.”

For their part, the Chargers have said nothing incendiary about the concept. They have, in fact, promoted the idea that the Qualcomm Stadium site can be put to better use as they have searched for alternatives.

“As we understand it, a new professional football stadium is not part of the discussion between the City and the California state university system,” reads a statement on the Chargers' Web site.

“It seems highly unlikely that a stadium that is not financially feasible utilizing the full 166-acre site will make any sense on a site that the City and State intend to use mostly for a university campus. The numbers simply will not add up.”

How the Chargers define “feasible” is open to debate. The NFL stadium model assumes a level of public subsidy (sometimes camouflaged as development rights) that few other private businesses would dare ask. Yet it's indisputable that the team will not be content to continue at Qualcomm Stadium indefinitely. Once a better alternative becomes viable – in Oceanside, in the City of Industry, wherever – the Bolts are likely to bolt.

Before we open the floor for discussion, remember that a football team's purported “need” for a new stadium is not about the beauty of a blimp shot, the ease of ingress and egress or structural soundness. It's almost entirely about revenue potential: luxury boxes, corporate signage and naming rights, high-end concessions, points of sale, etc.

Though Forbes magazine calculated the value of the Chargers at $888 million in its 2008 study of NFL teams, this ranked 26th among the 32 franchises. Predictably, every team that ranked below the Chargers has been stumping for stadium relief, including the Atlanta Falcons, whose occupancy of the Georgia Dome dates only to 1992.

To the extent that national economic woes have permeated local politics, the prospects of getting a stadium built on the public dime have diminished nationwide. If Majestic Realty's Ed Roski has found a private financing formula in the loophole-laden City of Industry, it's hard to imagine any municipality competing with him for the right to enrich millionaires. Not with so many Average Joes out of work.

While Roski has his own obstacles, notably ownership of a Las Vegas casino that offends NFL sensibilities, the era when cities could be stampeded into action by the threat of losing a team has probably ended.

Having rejected an earlier development plan for the Qualcomm Stadium site before it was formally announced in May, the Chargers appear to be taking the position that their best case for a new stadium is that the current site is underutilized.

“The more people understand that the Qualcomm site could be put to better use, the more likely we'll get support for a new stadium,” Chargers spokesman Mark Fabiani said.
Having the biggest parking lot west of the Mississippi and south of Canada only goes so far.